Decision-Making Is Self-Care: Decide Once, Trust Yourself, and Move Forward
The Christian Life Coach Podcast: Episode 47
Many women think they’re exhausted because they’re doing too much. Often, the real reason is that they’re carrying too many unmade decisions.
In this episode, Shanna explores decision-making as a powerful form of mental self-care. She explains why indecision is draining, how decision fatigue shows up in everyday life, and how to stop abandoning yourself after you choose.
Key Topics Covered
Why decision-making brings order, clarity, and peace
How indecision creates mental clutter and exhaustion
The science behind decision fatigue
Common fears that keep us stuck in indecision
When “I’m praying about it” becomes spiritualized delay
A simple three-question decision filter
How to trust yourself after making a decision
Why peace is the absence of inner division, not difficulty
Key Scriptures Referenced
Proverbs 3:5–6
2 Peter 1:3
“Let your yes be yes”
Key Takeaway
You don’t need to predict the future to make a wise decision. You need to choose faithfully with what you know now and refuse to second-guess yourself afterward.
Watch Here:
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12:15:54
Hello, and welcome to episode 47
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of the Christian Life Coach Podcast.
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If you are listening or watching in real time,
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Happy New Year! Happy…
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2026.
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Oh my word. So crazy.
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Okay, so this January,
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I am talking about self-care.
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But not necessarily in the way that we normally talk about self-care.
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Today, we are going to be talking about one area of…
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Um, mental self-care, which I personally love.
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And also, if you have not gotten my book called Self-Care as Stewardship, a 31-Day Devotional,
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I highly encourage you to go grab that.
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And as soon as you get it, whether on Kindle or in…
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um, softcover.
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go to the page after Day 7,
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opt in and get my planning pages, and you'll be invited to our January 2026 Facebook group that we will be going through the book together.
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So, as soon as you get that,
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jump in, and you'll be invited to the group.
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And you're never late to the party, you're right where you're supposed to be, and you're right on time.
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go get that, jump in the group. It's gonna be great.
12:17:26
So, today on the episode, I am talking, again, about a mental aspect
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of self-care, which normally I…
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I don't imagine you would think about this.
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as an aspect of self-care, but…
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It is.
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One of the things that keep
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us in exhaustion.
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is… indecision.
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So, today, I am talking about how
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Decision-making.
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is self-care.
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Decide once…
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Trust yourself and move forward.
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So…
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decision-making is self-care because it brings order. It brings clarity.
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And it brings peace.
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to your mind, to your mental state.
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Many of us, many women, us, me included,
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We think that we're overwhelmed because we're doing too much. We have too much to do.
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And…
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some of that could be part of it.
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And also, a lot of us are overwhelmed because we're…
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occurring too many
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decisions that have not been made yet.
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We are carrying
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piles of indecision.
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around in our brain with us.
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And God is a God of peace, God is a God of order, not confusion.
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If your mind feels noisy, it's likely because there are decisions that you keep
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pondering. You're not making the decision, you're staying in indecision.
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And maybe about…
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One thing, maybe, about several things, there might be some big decisions and little decisions.
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And really, they're not decisions, they're just indecisions.
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And they're… they're, um, clogging up your brain.
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Making a decision…
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takes a split second.
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the decisions made.
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The drain, the exhaustion, the mental…
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a mental exhaustion comes from
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contemplating the decision, from researching the decision, from questioning the decision, from asking others about the decision, and rehearsing the same choices over and over and over again.
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So,
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There is… there's this…
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We're thinking…
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that it takes a long time to make a decision. But really…
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split second, and the decision can be made.
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Women…
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We… we don't get stuck because we don't know what to do.
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We get stuck because we're trying to eliminate
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all discomfort in making a decision.
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We are replaying conversations, we're searching for the right answer.
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Waiting for the peace to come,
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Before we make a decision.
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We just want to ask one more person. Googling just one more time.
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And…
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contemplating doing all of these things is not neutral.
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it takes… it costs us.
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It costs us time.
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It costs us energy.
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It costs us peace.
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It costs us clarity.
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And confusion is not a sign that you need more information.
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It's often a sign that you just need to make a decision.
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You need to decide.
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And there is…
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the science of
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unmade decisions, and why they exhaust you. Your brain is keeping
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these… these undecisions…
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as active, open tabs, or active loops.
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Even when we're not consciously thinking about them, they're draining our energy, because they're on loop, on repeat.
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in the back of our mind, in our subconscious.
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And it zaps our energy, and it's…
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called Decision Fatigue.
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And decision fatigue, when we're so tired because we have not made a decision,
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we can show up as irritable.
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Decision fatigue can show up as procrastination.
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Emotional eating, scrolling, avoiding, overshopping.
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snapping at people.
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And this is not…
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a personal failure.
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But, it's something that we can be aware of,
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And notice…
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And take responsibility for?
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and steward.
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And our brains were not designed to hold all of these tabs open.
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And right now, I am looking at my computer screen,
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And I have my…
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outline for my podcast that I'm looking through as I'm doing this, and I'm seeing above the top, and I have
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I don't know. I can't count right now, but probably 15 tabs open. And that's what it is when we are not making a…
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decision. We have all of these open tabs.
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that we… we think that we need to address.
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And… really…
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We just need to decide and click the X to close the tabs out. Make the decision.
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closes the tab.
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Now, what?
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actually gets in the way of our making a decision.
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things like the fear of being wrong.
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fear that I'm going to regret making this decision.
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Fear of disappointing myself or disappointing other people.
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Maybe it's waiting to feel confident in the decision.
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Maybe… hear me out here, this might hurt…
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spiritualizing the delay.
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I need to pray about it. God hasn't given me the right answer yet.
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And some of that, yes. And sometimes,
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We're just staying in indecision.
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And spiritualizing it.
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Sometimes, saying, I'm praying about it,
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actually means I don't want to make a decision yet.
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And God gives our… gives us wisdom generously.
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The Bible tells us to ask for wisdom.
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But, he does not promise certainty.
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He does not promise.
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that…
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This is the way things are gonna go when you make this decision.
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And faith is not waiting until the fear is gone.
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Faith is moving forward.
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And trusting God with the outcome.
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I love this verse in 2 Peter. It's 2 Peter 1-3, and this is the New Living Translation.
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It says, by his divine power, God has given us everything we need
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for living a godly life. We have received all of this
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By coming to know Him,
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The one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous,
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Glory, and excellence. So, by his divine power, God has given us everything we need
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for living a godly life.
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He gives us everything that we need.
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Do we trust that we have everything that we need?
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to live a godly life, to make godly decisions.
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I love pevers. And another version of it says,
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Um, God has given us everything for life, and godliness.
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Just love that. I love that so much.
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And that's… I kind of… that's how I kind of live and make decisions.
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I am…
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consistently, not, like, not constantly,
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But consistently, I'm in prayer, asking for guidance. God, help me with this. I need…
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I need your guidance. I need…
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your vision, and I'm asking that consistently,
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But not in every single little situation. I'm asking for it consistently in my life.
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And I'm trusting that he has given me everything for life and godliness,
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And I am making decisions going forward in that
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trust, and then that belief.
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Am I doing it right?
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I don't know. Is that right, or is that wrong?
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I'm trusting that I'm doing what God has enabled me to do.
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So, I want to share…
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a three-question decision filter.
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So when you have a decision to make,
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Ask yourself.
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Does this align with my priorities right now?
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is this something that I want to move forward with that aligns with what matters to me right now?
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What would I choose?
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If there was no wrong answer.
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If I could choose this way, or I could choose this way, and both of those ways,
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would turn out amazing.
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Which way would I choose?
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If there was no wrong answer, if I'm going to succeed, if it's gonna turn out amazing either way,
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what way would I choose?
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And then, number 3, what would my highest…
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wisest, most loving self choose right now.
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So, does this align with my priorities right now?
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What would I choose if there was no wrong answer?
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And what would my highest
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wisest, most loving self.
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choose right now.
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You don't need to predict the future, you can't.
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You need to choose faithfully with what you know now.
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And if you need to, set a decision
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deadline, so that that loop doesn't stay open forever. I'm gonna decide this by this day at this time.
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Or… just make the decision.
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And then, I think this is…
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The most important
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thing to remember when you are making a decision.
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Have your own back after you make the decision.
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The hardest part isn't making the decision.
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The hardest part is trusting yourself afterward that you made the right decision.
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And I love, um, an old Dr. Phil saying.
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You either make the right decision,
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Or you make the decision right.
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So you… you just get to decide. I made the right decision.
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So many times, we second-guess ourselves.
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We are looking for proof that we made the wrong decision.
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We replay all of the other options that we could have chosen,
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And we're emotionally punishing ourselves for the decision that we made.
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And we think that we are doing it from a place of humility, being humble, but it's not. It's abandoning yourself.
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It's self-abandonment.
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So remind yourself, no matter what
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the decision that you made,
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No matter what the result is of that decision,
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Whether it turned out amazing,
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Or…
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You can't think of any ways that it could have gone any more wrong.
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I made the best decision that I could at the time with the information
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the resources and the capacity that I had.
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I made the right decision.
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The outcome isn't what I would have chosen, but I made the right decision.
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I will not second-guess myself.
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And I do not need to know how this turns out to trust that I decided wisely.
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I love, love, love.
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Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
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Do not lean on your own understanding.
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acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He will make your path straight.
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And trusting is trusting that He is guiding you.
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And trusting you…
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And that He is shaping you into the woman that He wants you to be.
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So we think that…
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if I… if I made the right decision, I would feel peaceful all the time.
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that it would just… if I made the right decision,
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It would just lead to peace.
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It would lead to contentment. It would lead to happiness.
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But peace…
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And joy…
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And contentment are not the absence of difficulty.
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And peace, especially.
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is the absence of inner division. It's the absence of being divided within yourself.
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So, making the right decision…
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having your back?
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experiencing peace no matter what?
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is… growth.
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You can learn, you can adjust, you can pivot.
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You can grow. Without shaming your past self, without
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abandoning yourself.
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So the boundary is, you are not allowed to judge
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the decision that you made in the past?
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with the wisdom that you have right now.
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You know the outcome now of that decision. You didn't know it then.
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So, judging yourself for that knowledge that you have now,
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isn't fair.
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So once you decide you don't reopen the decision emotionally.
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You can evaluate the outcomes,
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You can make adjustments.
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you're gonna… you're gonna grow in wisdom, but you do not get to…
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rehearse. Gret, regret.
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fantasize about other roads that you could have taken, about other decisions that you could have made at the time.
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You don't get to punish yourself for not knowing…
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what you couldn't possibly have known.
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So what decision has been sitting in your mind has been taking up space?
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You don't have to decide everything today.
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But decide one thing.
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Make the decision.
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And then have your own back.
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After the decision is made.
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deciding is self-care.
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Let your yes be yes, and your no be no.
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I would love to hear what you think about this.
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Feel free to send me an email, hello at shannapiser.com.
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Message me on social media,
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I would love to hear about it.
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And, if this is helpful to you…
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Please, I would so appreciate.
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A like, a subscribe, a 5-star review, that would be fantastic.
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Share it with your friends.
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And don't forget to get self-care stewardship and join our January Facebook group.
12:35:05
We… I'm sure, are having a great time in there. I'm recording this ahead of time, but it's going to be wonderful.
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Thank you so much for being here.
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And remember that life coaching is life-changing.
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One renewed thought
